Spyderco Tenacious, dangerous, finger guillotine?

H

heresthedeal

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Oct 3, 2010
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I must be missing something. there's more than one thread that mentions the tenacious being dangerous. mines been extremely well behaved, hasn't cut anybody's fingers off that i know of. matter of fact, its been one of the best spydercos I've ever owned, (not sure how many i have, i think 20 or so). blade lock up is great, no play, liner lock takes more than enough pressure to release. is it just me or is this knife actually just a time bomb waiting for a cell signal?
anybody loose any fingers to the vicious tenacious?
 
nutnfancy mentioned about its weak detent hence the blade opens itself in his pocket but i have to disagree with on on that. 3 of my tenacious are tight and solid once open or closed and their detent are so much stronger than zt0200.
however the only part that i can conclude that is dangerous is the lack of choil or a segement of unsharpened blade stock. Hence, one needs to be careful not to swing the tenacious (or any of the value knives) closed.
 
I have every member of the Tenacious family (Ambitious, Persistence, Tenacious, and Resilience) and they're all fine. No loose detents or anything. I had one occurrence - and only one- where I flicked the blade of the Tenacious out so fast that it went faster than I could move my thumb away and I ended up pushing the pad of my thumb (as if I were still in the deployment hole) into the edge. It bled. Two stitches. It was my fault, but oh well. Play with knives long enough and you're going to get cut.
 
While it lacks a choil, the base of the blade seems to do a pretty good job of stopping the blade against a finger when it's unlocked.

Then again, plenty of folders don't have choils, and while I'm not going to name any names here, I can think of quite a few other inexpensive knives that would classify as "finger guillotines."

I also found the detent and lockup pretty darn solid on both my Tenacious and Persistance.
 
so i'm not the only one that thinks its usually the operator and not the knife. i guess its possible that somewhere there's somebody steadily typing away with a pen in their mouth because of a tenacious who is gonna set me straight. the thread that got me thinking and looking for other threads was in general, and asked about a kershaw skyline and the tenacious, as in which ones the better buy. not a kershaw knife fan, have and do own a few tho, i recommend the tenacious.
glad i have all my fingers,
 
Another vote for operator error: I've never had any problems/concerns whatsoever about the detent or lockup on my Tenacious.
 
Only problem with mine is only one set of clip holes are not oversized. Meaning the clip screws just drop into the rest of them.
 
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never had a problem with it..the only time i have been bit by it was because i wasnt paying attention and didnt move my finger out of the way.
 
Nope, no problems here and my Tenacious has had EDC status for the last year literally every day.
 
It's not the Tenacious per-se. Any "all edge" blade requires more focus when using and closing that one with a 50/50 choil. That's even more true if the handle does not have a guard to keep your hand from sliding forward. The Tenacious at least has that.
 
I close mine one handed and have yet to be bitten by it. But as Deacon points out, any all edge knife is going to be a higher risk of closing than one with a choil. On my choiled knives, I like to close them and let my finger catch the choil. With the Tenacious, I have to be more careful. I'll probably get bitten by it sooner or later, actually. That's the problem with carrying multiple knives and switching EDC often, I guess. We get used to some of them and when you switch, sometimes muscle memory takes over. In the end it's all user error, but some are higher risk than others. With a choil, you almost can't cut yourself unless you're really, really being very negligent.
 
I say operator error. IIRC, Nutnfancy had his sitting in a fanny pack and it opened inside. He reached in and got bit. I think if you are going to carry the knife tip up, it would be safer to place it in your RFP so the spine of the blade is against the seam. I would think that you would have more of a chance of getting cut if you carried it in your back pocket and it moved around and opened slightly. Just my two cents.
 
never had the tenacious open in my back pocket yet:thumbup: however...i have had the military open while at work and it was a very unpleasant surprise to say the least. but i have to send the military in for up and down play so maybe it has something to do with that
 
My Tenacious has never given me a problem, solid and very smooth. I usually wear my EDC in my RFP(tip up) so haven't had any issues with any of my knives opening in my pocket.
 
however the only part that i can conclude that is dangerous is the lack of choil or a segement of unsharpened blade stock. Hence, one needs to be careful not to swing the tenacious (or any of the value knives) closed.
Click to expand...

I agree 100%. The addition of a choil would in my opinion make these knives nearly a perfect value folder. However, it would likely add to the overall cost of the knife.
 
my detent is pretty strong and is actually not that easily opened. try adjusting it a little
 
glad to hear I'm not the only one that's willing to carry such a dangerous knife and keep it in line. thanks for the replies.
not sure how it would come open in a pocket, mine wont even flip ope no matter how hard i try without the use of my thumb.
maybe a defective detent was the problem with nutnfancy's knife.
I am glad to see that nobody has lost any fingers. i still think its a fine knife, even if it cost twice as much.
 
I've been bitten by my Tenacious more than the rest of my knives put together. I think it's the lack of coil, combined with how easily 8Cr13MoV takes a really nasty edge. I'm kind of lazy about sharpening, so the fact that I can restore the edge on my Tenacious in about 10 seconds means it has a much higher probability of being really sharp than most of my other knives. Sharp knife + No choil + Klutzy owner = cuts.
 
Old thread, I know ;)

On my Tenacious, I was thinking about grinding part of the blade edge flat - a 1/2" section where it meets the handle. This would provide some 'insurance' against the 'finger guillotine" effect in case of lock failure (or human error). The grind could even be curved to look like a small choil though it wouldn't be used as such). I know this wouldn't be as effective as a real choil, since the blade is so thin where it would be ground, but it would at least square/dull the edge - better than nothing. Has anyone done this? I haven't had any accidents yet, but the 'all blade' design kind of makes me nervous.

Frozy said:
nutnfancy mentioned about its weak detent hence the blade opens itself in his pocket but i have to disagree with on on that. 3 of my tenacious are tight and solid once open or closed and their detent are so much stronger than zt0200.
however the only part that i can conclude that is dangerous is the lack of choil or a segement of unsharpened blade stock. Hence, one needs to be careful not to swing the tenacious (or any of the value knives) closed.
Click to expand...
 
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